2024 Sun June 16
Bulletin, 4th Sunday after Pentecost, June 16, 2024
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World Refugee Day, June 20
“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” – Hebrews 13:2
World Refugee Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 to celebrate the strength and courage of those around the world who have been forced to flee their home country to escape prosecution or conflict. World Refugee Day helps to raise awareness about the growing refugee crisis in places like Syria and Central Africa and to focus on ways to improve the lives of refugees.
“ Refugee” is a legal term used to define an individual who:
“…owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.” (1951 Geneva Refugee Convention.)
Reading Compline
In celebration of the Summer solstice on June 20 you can read the compline service here. People have been reciting this last service of the day since the 6th century and takes less than 30 minutes.
“May the God of peace…equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight.” — Prayer from An Order for Compline, The Book of Common Prayer
The ancient office of Compline derives its name from a Latin word meaning ‘completion.’ The office provides quietness and reflection before rest at the end of the day. Compline begins on page 127 in The Book of Common Prayer.
Kate Mears wrote the following for Maundy Thursday in 2016 to illustrate how Compline helped her through a hard time.
“It’s hard to think about what enough means after a disaster. With so many people so acutely struggling right in your own community, you know you must do something. But how many things can you do? Who can you serve? Who are you missing who is still in desperate need? And when can you stop and catch your breath? When are you allowed to rest?
“This concept of enough, these questions kept me up at night when I was helping clear out flooded homes in the months following Katrina in New Orleans. Had I done enough? Had I forgotten anyone? Had I prioritized those we could serve properly, justly? I could never answer those questions. I still can’t.
“But in the months following the storm, I found that I could quiet them through prayer. I lit a candle next to my bed almost every night and read the Compline service to myself, whispering both parts in the darkness.
“Most nights, that routine, those words I grew to know by heart, were all the prayer that I could muster with my scattered, distracted mind. But somehow that ritual, that flame, those whispers and that connection to God kept the anxiety at bay.
My time in prayer reminded me that while the challenges are many, they’re not mine to shoulder alone. There will always be enough work for tomorrow, but in the meantime, we can sit with the darkness and the quiet and try, for a moment, to find some peace and strength for what lies ahead – and to know that God is always enough.”
So What is an Epistle?
By Jack Wellman
“I read a survey many years ago that tested the biblical literacy of Christians. One of the questions was “What were the wives of the apostles called?” There were multiple choice answers and the one answer that received the most votes was the apostles wives were called “epistles” but that is, of course, wrong so let’s find out the answers to the questions: what were the epistles in the Bible and what does the word epistle mean?
Gospel of Mark, Jesus Early Ministry, June- July, 2024, Year B
The Big Picture – 8 Sundays from the Gospel extending from the Sunday after Trinity through most of July get into the heart of Jesus’ message in the early phases of his ministry.
From the SALT Blog the basic idea if that “the ‘kingdom,’ the ‘reign,’ the “realm” of God has come near — near enough that we can reach out and touch it. It’s not somewhere else; it’s here.” The Gospel messages highlight characteristics of Jesus’ ministry:
What’s important ?
1. Love
2. Restoration, healing, joy and hope
3. Growth
4. Confrontation forces of evil
5. Faith
6. Hospitality
7. Warning about hardships
8. Feeding and Compassion
Lectionary, Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, June 16, 2024
I. Theme – The Surprising and Unexpected Revelations of God
"Mustard Tree" – Katy Jones
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Ezekiel 17:22-24
Psalm – Psalm 92:1-4,11-14 Page 720, BCP
Epistle –2 Corinthians 5:6-10,[11-13],14-17
Gospel – Mark 4:26-34
Today’s readings are colored by lovely shades of green, and are filled with images of growth and newness. From the cedars of Ezekiel to the palm tree of the psalm, the flourishing of human beings is part of all creation’s fruitfulness.
In the first readings, Ezekiel gives the Israelites hope that one day God will restore their strength and Samuel sees beyond outward appearances to choose the least likely son of Jesse to anoint as king. Paul reminds his Corinthian communities that our eternal dwelling is not found here on earth but is with the lord.
In the gospel, Jesus uses two parables to describe how God’s dynamic presence—the kingdom—grows in our lives. In Jesus’ parable of the kingdom, seed (God’s word) is scattered broadly. Perhaps as he told this story, Jesus was watching a farmer hand-sow a field. The farmer does not know how the seed sprouts and grows. The process goes on while the farmer sleeps and wakes, not by any effort on the farmer’s part, but by the mystery of growth itself. “The earth produces of itself” and the harvest comes. Jesus is not trying to explain the mystery of growth. He is commanding the same kind of trust in the reality of God’s kingdom that we depend upon in the natural world. Just as we believe a seed is growing in the dark ground while we cannot see it, so we believe the kingdom is growing in our dark world.
For the spiritually perceptive, Jesus himself is the seed God has sown in the world. We believe in the divine kingdom already “planted” in Christ and trust the creative Spirit of God to bring forth the new harvest of redeemed human souls.
The word “harvest” is also used as a biblical note of warning. The sickle is judgment. The grain was ripe when Jesus came into the world. But now the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. God’s kingdom has already sprung up in Christ, and we must decide whether or not to be among the disciples who understand his words and live by them.
God is doing something new, which is the new thing God began in creation. God is bringing the high down low and lifting up the low to be high. God is creating us anew, in a way in which we grow and live together in a way that honors God and each other, and not ourselves. The reign of God is built when we live for each other, building each other up, doing Christ’s work here on earth. The reign of God is built when we recognize that death does not have a hold on us, and that life is worth living when we live for others, not for ourselves. Everything old dies, but in Christ, everything becomes new, and life surpasses death.
Looking into the Lectionary
By Teri McDowell Ott, Presbyterian Outlook
During a long and brutal winter, three sisters visited a community where food was scarce, the people starving. Despite this famine, the three sisters were greeted warmly, and fed generously. In gratitude for this hospitality, the three sisters gifted the people with three seeds – corn, bean, and squash – a small package that ensured the people would never go hungry again.
Robin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a scientist, shares this origin story in Braiding Sweetgrass and reflects on its spiritual and biological significance. These three seeds naturally complement each other to produce an abundance of food. She writes:
“The lessons of reciprocity are written clearly in a Three Sisters garden. Together their stems inscribe what looks to me like a blueprint for the world, a map of balance and harmony. The corn stands eight feet tall; rippling green ribbons of leaf curl away from the stem in every direction to catch the sun…The bean twines around the corn stalk, weaving itself between the leaves of corn, never interfering with their work…Spread around the feet of the corn and beans is a carpet of big broad squash leaves that intercept the light that falls among the pillars of corn… The organic symmetry of forms belongs together; the placement of every leaf, the harmony of shapes speak their message. Respect one another, support one another, bring your gift to the world and receive the gifts of others, and there will be enough for all.”
Mark’s text for this fourth Sunday after Pentecost also tells a story of seed and sower that, working together, grow into a great bush whose branches offer an abundance of gifts. The mustard seed could grow into a bush the size of a house, a great nesting place for birds who eat the seed pods that can also be ground into a powder for curries and condiments. The bushes’ leaves are also edible, eaten raw in salads or cooked as mustard greens.
Jesus’ parable reminds us that we are co-creators with God and the earth. When we respect these relationships and support one another, the kingdom of God is revealed — a place of plenty; a place where all God’s creatures can bloom, and grow and flourish.
But when we neglect these relationships and God’s blueprint of balance, all creation suffers. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote of this suffering in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” …
Visual Lectionary Vanderbilt, 4th Sunday after Pentecost, June 16, 2024
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Father’s Day Prayer
We give thanks for fathers.
We give thanks for those fathers who have striven to balance the demands of work, marriage, and children with an honest awareness of both joy and sacrifice. We give thanks for those fathers who, lacking a good model for a father, have worked to become good fathers.
We give thanks for those fathers who by their own account were not always there for their children, but who continue to offer those children, now grown, their love and support. We pray for those fathers who have been wounded by the neglect and hostility of their children.
We give thanks for those fathers who, despite divorce, have remained in their children’s lives. We give thanks for those fathers who have adopted children, and whose love and support has offered healing.
We give thanks for those fathers who, as stepfathers, freely choose the obligation of fatherhood and have earned their stepchildren’s love and respect. We give thanks for those fathers who have lost children to death, and who, in spite of their grief, continue to hold those children in their hearts.
We give thanks for those men who have no children, but cherish the next generation as if they were their own. We give thanks for those men who have ‘fathered’ us in their roles as mentors and guides.
We give thanks for those men who are about to become fathers; may they openly delight in their children. And we give thanks for those fathers who have died, but who live on in our memory and whose love continues to nurture us.
We give thanks for fathers.
Amen
Adapted from a prayer by Kirk Loadman-Copeland
Recent Articles, June 16, 2024, The Fourth Sunday after the Pentecost



Bulletin
Sermon
Lectionary, June 16, 11am service
Commentary
Visual lectionary from Vanderbilt
8 Sundays of Mark’s Early Ministry
Looking into the lectionary
So, What is an Epistle?
Father’s Day Prayer
All about Juneteenth (June 19)
World Refugee Day, June 20
Connection between Juneteenth and World Refugee Day
Why we should welcome refugees?
Anything but Ordinary! Ordinary Time
Celebrating Midsummers

St. Peter’s Wildflowers
Celebrating the Rappahannock River
General Convention
All About General Convention
Bishop Harris on General Convention
Ministries
Special – May, June
Shred-it preliminary results from June 12
Shred-it Gallery
Thy Kingdom Come
St. Peter’s Anniversary
Chancellor’s Village
Chancellor Village Photos and sermon, May 14
Chancellor’s Village Sermon, April 23
Sacred Ground
Foundations of an African-American Community
Sacred Ground, May, 2024
Sacred Ground, Feb., 2024
Sacred Ground, Jan., 2024
Season of Creation
St. Peter’s and the Earth
Team Up to clean up event, April 20
Episcopal Church Men
ECM Maintenance, May 11
Newsletters
June newsletter
May newsletter
Episcopal Church Women
ECW Chair change
ECW Spring meeting, April 9
Jamaica
Breakfast program in Jamaica
Performance
Portland Guitar Duo at St. Peter’s, April 19, 2024
Village Harvest
Summer meals
Village Harvest, May 2024
Village Harvest, April, 2024
Village Harvest, March, 2024
Village Harvest, Feb., 2024
Education
Creeds class notes 5 sessions- Conclusion
God’s Garden collection
Sunday Links, June 16, 2024
Fourth Sunday After Pentecost June 16, 11am
Lector: Andrea Pogue
Chalice Bearer: Johnny Davis
Altar Clean up: Jan Saylor